Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 7:27
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
27. the rain descended, &c.] In the original both the tense and the position of the verbs give great vivacity to the description.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 27. And the rain descended, and the floods came, c.] A fine illustration of this may be seen in the case of the fishermen in Bengal, who, in the dry season, build their huts on the beds of sand from which the rivers had retired: but when the rain sets in suddenly as it often does, accompanied with violent northwest winds, and the waters pour down in torrents from the mountains; in one night, multitudes of these buildings are swept away, and the place where they stood is on the next morning indiscoverable.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
27. And the rain descended, and thefloods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that housestruckagainst that house;
and it fell: and great wasthe fall of itterrible the ruin! How lively must this imageryhave been to an audience accustomed to the fierceness of an Easterntempest, and the suddenness and completeness with which it sweepseverything unsteady before it!
Effect of the Sermon on theMount (Mat 7:28; Mat 7:29).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the rain descended, and the floods came,…. Such builders, and such a building, cannot stand against the violent rain of Satan’s temptations, the floods of the world’s persecutions, the stream and rapid torrent of their own heart’s lusts, nor the blowing winds of heresy and false doctrine, and much less the storms of divine wrath and vengeance. They are in a most dangerous condition; they cannot support themselves; they must fall, and great will be their fall; their destruction is inevitable, their ruin is irrecoverable. The Jews make use of some similes, which are pretty much like these of Christ’s.
“R. Eliezer ben Azariah used to say z, he whose wisdom is greater than his works, to what is he like? to a tree, whose branches are many, and its roots few, “and the wind comes”, and roots it up, and overturns it; as it is said,
Jer 17:6 but he whose works are greater than his wisdom, to what is he like? to a tree, whose branches are few, and its roots many, “against which, if all the winds in the world were to come and blow”, they could not move it out of its place: as it is said, Jer 17:8.”
Again a,
“Elisha ben Abuijah used to say, a man who hath good works, and learns the law much, to what is he like? to a man that “builds with stones below”, and afterwards with bricks; and though , “many waters come”, and stand at their side, they cannot remove them out of their place; but a man who hath no good works, and learns the law, to what is he like? to a man that “builds with bricks first”, and afterwards with stones; and though few waters come, they immediately overturn them.”
The same used to say,
“a man who hath good works, and learns the law much, to what is he like? to mortar spread upon bricks; and though
, “the rains descend upon it”, they cannot remove it out of its place: a man that hath no good works, and learns the law much, to what is he like? to mortar thrown upon bricks; and though but a small rain descends upon it, it is immediately dissolved, and “falls”.”
z Pirke Abot, c. 3. sect. 17. & Abot R. Nathan, c. 22. fol. 6. 1, 2. a Abot R. Nathan, c. 24. fol. 6. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Great was the fall of it. The conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. “Thus,” remarks Bengel, “it is not necessary for every sermon to end with consolation.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And the rain descended,” (kai katebe he broche) “And the rain came down,” the testing came for them as it did for those who did not believe God, by the preaching of Noah, did not enter the ark by faith, were exposed when afore warned judgment came, Gen 7:21-22.
2) “And the floods came,” (kai elthon hoi potamoi) “And rivers came to be,” resulting from the rain, as in the days of Noah, Gen 7:4; Gen 7:10; Gen 7:17-20; Floods often came to destroy poorly built homes along river banks, even along the Jordan river, that often “swelled” or flooded beyond its banks, Jer 12:5; Jer 49:19; Jer 50:44.
3) “And the winds blew,” (kai epneusan hoi anemoi) “And the winds they blew,” the four winds, from every direction, as in a storm, signifying the time of testings in life and leading to destruction, for this house and household so imprudently built with no salvation, no true love, prayer, or spirit of comfort in trials in life, Rom 8:9.
4) “And beat upon that house,” (kai prosekopsan te oikia ekeine) “And they beat against or pressed against that house;” One had better be certain that there is an eternity of difference between the “wind” of human emotions, and the “wind of the spirit” of God, by which one is born again, led and comforted in a life built on service to God, Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5-8; Joh 6:63; Rom 8:11; Rom 8:14-16.
5) “And it fell:” (kai epesen) “And it fell,” was destroyed by the wind and the flood. Our Lord forewarned of such, Joh 8:24; Luk 13:2; Luk 13:5; Luk 16:31; Mr 16:16.
6) “And great was the fall of it.” (kai hen he ptosis autes megale) “And great was its fall;” Perhaps all Hebrew minds were quickened by the judgment of Noah’s flood, as an antecedent picture and example of inexcusable judgement doom and loss that shall come to all men in this Gentile and church age who reject Jesus Christ as Savior, and His call to service in His church. All sham and hypocrisy are brought to judgment, Ecc 12:13-14.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
27. Our Lord gives a vivid contrast in the pictures of the rock-founded and sand-founded house, drawn from the natural scenes of Palestine. It is the foundation that is the main thing. The house built upon the rock could not be undermined; but the light structure erected upon the beach, when the windy storms poured down and swelled the floods around it, soon found its base gliding from under it. Great was the fall ”The fishermen of Bengal,” says Mr. Ward, in his View of the Hindoos, “build their huts in the dry season on the bed of sand from which the river has retired. When the rains set in, which they do often very suddenly, accompanied with violent northwest winds, the water pours down in torrents from the mountains. In one night multitudes of these huts are frequently swept away, and the place where they stood is the next morning undiscoverable.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“And the rain descended, and the floods came,
And the winds blew, and smote on that house,”
But then he had to face the same problems as the wise man’s house, the rain and the floods and the storm. But there was also one more thing that he had to face, and that was God’s smiting. The distinction is emphasised by the deliberate change in verb in the parallel. One faced ‘beating on’ the other faced ‘smiting’. And why? Because he had chosen not to build on a foundation. It was because he had rejected the foundation that he was smitten.
Mat 7:27 b
“And it fell,”
This house did not stand firm, it fell. But really it was inevitable. Its fall was certain from the moment that he had refused to establish a firm foundation.
Mat 7:27 c
“And great was its fall.”
Here Jesus disturbs His parallels in order to bring out two lessons. Firstly that it was not that this house had the wrong foundations, but that it had no foundations. For the point is that there only is one foundation, and that is the word that Jesus has brought from His Father. And secondly in order that He might complete His words on a note which would not be forgotten. ‘Great was its fall’. Jesus was not providing interesting sayings, He was preaching for decision. For He wanted them to leave with the recognition that that ‘catastrophic fall’ would be the end of all who did not heed His words and obey them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Ver. 27. And the rain descended, &c. ] The old heart cannot possibly hold out the hardship of holiness, nor bear the brunt of persecution for well doing. Like a chestnut cast into the fire, if not broken first on the top, it leaps out again; or like a false jade in a team, which being put to a stress, turns tail and tramples. When the godly hearer holds on his way to heaven, through all disasters; as those two kine of the Philistines that bore home the ark, held on their way, though they had calves at home, that might have made them turn back.
And it fell ] The wise man’s and fool’s house come under a double difference. 1. In the foundation; this to see to, and above ground, is little discerned. The temple is said to be as low underground as it was high above. 2. In the building itself. The unprofitable hearer is not cemented to Christ by faith, but laid loose, as it were, upon a sandy foundation, and so slips beside the ground work in foul weather. He is not set into the stock as a scion, but only stuck into the ground as a stake, and is therefore easily pulled up. Whereas the true Christian is knit fast to Christ the rock by the ligament of a lively faith; and as a lively stone, is built up in a spiritual house,1Pe 2:51Pe 2:5 , growing up in the mystical body with so much sweetness and evenness, as if the whole temple (like that of Solomon) were but one entire stone. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,” 1Co 6:17 . So that although, 1. Shakings and waverings in the very purpose of holy walking may befall a saint by violent temptations, Psa 73:2 ; Psa 73:13 ; yea, 2. Intermissions of the exercise of grace, as of life in a palsy or epilepsy; 3. Particular falls we are not exempted from, -Peter himself, though a pillar, fell from his former steadfastness, in part; -yet from intercision, prolapsion, from utter and irrecoverable falling away, they are freed, because founded upon a Rock, which can never be removed, he is both the “author and finisher of their faith,” Heb 12:2 ; He hath prayed and procured that it utterly fail notLuk 22:32Luk 22:32 .
And the fall thereof was great ] Great and grievous, because irreparable, irrebuildable, as Jericho and the temple at Jerusalem. God lays them aside like broken vessels, of which there is no further use; and since they will needs wallow again, as swine, in the filth of their former pollutions, he pronounceth upon them that fearful sentence, “Let him that is filthy be filthy still;” that unclean spirit entereth him again, and his dispositions to evil are seven times more inflamed than ever. He hath despised and despited the Spirit of Grace, and is in the ready road to the unpardonable sin, Heb 10:26 . The apostate cannot lightly choose unto himself a worse condition, Heb 10:26 . He casts himself into hell’s mouth, Heb 10:39 , where “the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways,” Pro 14:14 , and have the greater torment by how much he fell from greater hopes and possibilities of better; as Nebuchadnezzar from his monarchy, and as Cranmer from his high preferment to so low a condition, as that there was left him neither hope of better nor place of worse.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
27. ] All the greater, because such an one as here supposed is a professed disciple and therefore would have the further to fall in case of apostasy.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 7:27 . : exactly the same phrases as in Mat 7:25 , to describe the oncome of the storm. : a different word for the assault on the house struck upon it with immediate fatal effect. It was not built to stand such rough handling. The builder had not thought of such an eventuality. , : not necessarily implying that it was a large building, or that the disaster was of large dimensions, like the collapse of a great castle, but that the ruin was complete. The fool’s house went down like a house of cards, not one stone or brick left on another.
Allegorising interpretation of the rain, rivers and winds, and of the foundations, is to be avoided, but it is pertinent to ask, what defects of character in the sphere of religion are pointed at in this impressive parabolic logion ? What kind of religion is it that deserves to be so characterised? The foolish type is a religion of imitation and without forethought. Children play at building houses, because they have seen their seniors doing it. There are people who play at religion, not realising what religion is for, but following fashion, doing as others do, and to be seen of others (Mat 6:1 ). Children build houses on the sea sand below high-tide mark, not thinking of the tide which will in a few hours roll in and sweep away their houselet. There are men who have religion for to-day, and think not of the trial to-morrow may bring.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
beat upon = on the roof; stumbled against, merely impinged, or lightly struck, in contrast with Mat 7:25.
fell = did fall.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
27. ] All the greater, because such an one as here supposed is a professed disciple- -and therefore would have the further to fall in case of apostasy.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 7:27. , and great was the fall of it) It was great indeed, for it was entire. We see, from the present example, that it is not necessary for all sermons to end in a consolatory strain.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Mat 12:43-45, Mat 13:19-22, Eze 13:10-16, 1Co 3:13, Heb 10:26-31, 2Pe 2:20-22
Reciprocal: 1Ch 14:11 – like the breaking Job 1:19 – it fell Job 9:17 – For he Job 18:14 – confidence Job 27:21 – a storm Job 38:23 – General Psa 83:15 – General Pro 14:11 – house Ecc 1:6 – The wind Isa 28:17 – and the waters Isa 30:13 – as a breach Eze 13:11 – there shall Eze 13:14 – the foundation Eze 38:22 – an overflowing Hos 5:10 – like Amo 9:5 – shall rise Nah 1:8 – with Mat 13:6 – because Mat 13:21 – root Luk 14:30 – General Joh 21:6 – Cast Heb 4:1 – any Jam 1:23 – General Jam 2:14 – though
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7:27
But the test is sure to come and the house on the sand will fall. Great will be the fall because it will be the loss of a soul.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 7:27. The description of a storm is repeated, but the result is different; the winds smote upon that house; and it fell. Instead of adding, for it had been founded on the sand, our Lord closes the illustration, and at the same time the discourse, which began with the word, blessed, by saying, and great was the fall of it. He emphasizes the completeness of the ruin. Admiration of the Sermon on the Mount, without obedience of its precepts, involves destruction, inevitable and utter. In order to do these sayings, we must follow Christ further.